Diamondbacks 10, Queens 5: Ain’t It Grand?

Well, we’re going to escape from New York with at least one win.

I gotta say, this one started out not looking like it was gonna go so great for us. Lefty Sean Manaea, looking deeply weird without all the hair and wearing a Metropolitans’ uni, sat down the start of our lineup with only eleven pitches thrown, despite Randal Grichuk managing a two-out single to center. Slade Cecconi, meanwhile, recently back from Reno, had less of a smooth start in the bottom of the frame, as he was greeted immediately by rockets off various outfield walls thanks to the bats of Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso. Happily, however, Grichuk played Lindor’s perfectly off the wall in right, catching it on the carom and firing to second to easily throw out Lindor, who not all that unreasonably seemed to have assumed that any ball hit that hard and that well should at least be a double. Not every day you see the 9-6 putout, but there you are, so Alonso’s double off the wall in left center drove in exactly no one. It was a very hard-hit ball, just like Lindor’s was, but a strikeout and a groundout to short left Alonso standing at second as Cecconi’s first zero went up on the board.

Even with the traffic, Slade only threw 17 pitches in that first inning of work. Not as efficient as Manaea, but hey, what can you do?

Anyway. Manaea then cruised through the middle of our lineup in the second, only needing ten pitches to sit us down in order. Rather ignominiously, Gaby Moreno and Blaze Alexander, playing 2B this afternoon, struck out on three pitches each. Cecconi only needed eleven pitches of his own in the bottom of the second, though, so he seemed to be settling in nicely.

The bottom of our lineup, as is often the case when we wind up winning a ballgame, showed up to play today, as Jake McCarthy led off the top of the third with a single into right center, which Kevin Newman followed by drawing Manaea’s first walk of the day. Rather hilariously, they immediately implemented a successful double steal, putting them in scoring position with nobody out and the lineup turning over. Alas, however, Ketel Marte struck out, and then Corbin Carroll struck out, and it was suddenly looking like we were going to come away with nothing. Somewhat curiously, the Mets seemed to decide to pitch around Grichuk to get to Christian Walker, which loaded the bases for him. Walker had struck out on seven pitches to end the top of the first, but this time he didn’t mess around, sending the first pitch he saw over the fence in left:

Geno Suarez then struck out to end the inning (though to be fair, he did hang an 11-pitch AB on Manaea), but we were suddenly in the driver’s seat. 4-0 D-BACKS

And that was pretty close to the margin we needed for this one. Cecconi retired the Mets in order in the bottom of the third, pitched around a JD Martinez two-out double to put up another zero in the fourth, throwing twelve and sixteen pitches respectively in the two innings. The lone blemish on his day wound up being a leadoff homer he gave up to Mets third baseman Mark Vientos to begin the fifth, which was followed immediately by a Jeff McNeil infield single. He recorded two outs after that, but Torey Lovullo gave him the hook with the New York lineup turning over and Lindor coming to the plate. Somewhat to my surprise, Kevin Ginkel was brought in to relieve Slade, but it wound up being a good call, as Ginkel got Lindor to foul out to third on the first pitch he threw. 4-1 D-BACKS

Manaea, meanwhile, settled down in the fourth and the fifth, returning to his initial efficiency and putting up zeroes, despite a leadoff Kevin Newman single in the top of the fifth. However, we got to him again when he came out for the top of the sixth, thanks to a two-out Gaby Moreno double to left, followed by a Blaze Alexander single to right that drove in Moreno.

That was the end of Manaea’s day, with a lefty named Josh Walker taking the ball. Blaze Alexander immediately stole second on him, which was fun, and then it got hilarious when Walker bounced a curveball to Jake McCarthy that went for a wild pitch. Blaze advanced to third, Mets catcher Tomas Nido tried the throw him out but instead sent the ball up the left field line, and Blaze came home to score the second insurance run of the game for us. Sadly, there’s no video highlight of that foolishness, which really is too bad, because it was simply hilarious. 6-1 D-BACKS

Meanwhile, our bullpen went to work, and actually did its job very well. Ginkel recorded the first two outs of the sixth inning, though he had to leave the game after the second out, which occurred on a 98mph comebacker off the bat of Brandon Nimmo that struck him so hard in the knee that it bounced back to Gaby Moreno sufficiently quickly that Gaby was able to collect it and throw Nimmo out at first. Ginkel, meanwhile, immediately toppled sideways off the mound, writhing in pain. Trainers came out, and Gink stayed down for quite awhile before he was eventually helped to his feet and managed to walk, unassisted, back to the dugout. It was a scary moment, and pretty horrible to see. I hope he suffers to lasting ill effects. To their credit, the Mets fans gave him a rousing and heartfelt ovation when he eventually got up and slowly walked off the field.

Bryce Jarvis relieved him, pitched an inning and a third of scoreless relief, while we tacked on more runs in the seventh and eighth innings, thanks to a handful of singles and walks off Josh Walker, including one drawn by Christian Walker, which allowed The Real Ramona to remark to me, “Walker walked Walker.” That’s even better than “Walker walks.” But two more runs crossed the plate in the seventh, and then two more in the eighth on Corbin Carroll’s only hit of the afternoon, a single to center that scored Blaze Alexander and Jake McCarthy. 10-1 D-BACKS

And that’s pretty much the ballgame, aside from Brandon Hughes running into some trouble in the bottom of the ninth. Hughes pitched a scoreless eighth, but coughed up four runs with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, thanks to a couple of singles, a double, and finally a Pete Alonso dinger to right center. Paul Sewald, who hasn’t worked in a very long time, eventually came out to induce a JD Martinez flyout to Carroll in center to finally put a cork in this one. 10-5 D-BACKS

Win Probability Added, courtesy of FanGraphs

October: Christian Walker (4 AB, 1 H, 1 R, 4 RBI, 1 GS, 3 K, 1 BB, +29.8% WPA)
June: Slade Cecconi (4²⁄₃ IP 1 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 4 K, +12.2% WPA)
February: Corbin Carroll (5 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 2 K, -11.1% WPA)

Twas a lovely Gameday Thread this afternoon, with 184 comments at time of writing. Our Fearless Leader gets today’s CotG thanks to impeccable timing for dropping this comment right before....well, you can figure it out, I’m sure:

The bats seem to have made it to New York, which has meant some good fun the last couple of games. Join us tomorrow morning as we try to secure a series split, with Brandon Pfaadt taking the mound against another Mets lefty, this time Jose Quintana. First pitch is early, scheduled for 10:40am AZ time. Hope to see you!

As always, thanks for reading, and as always, go Diamondbacks!